Chorus grows for Rahul to contest from South\, Smriti Irani takes potshots

Chorus grows for Rahul to contest from South, Smriti Irani takes potshots

IANS  |  New Delhi 

As the clamour for to fight from a seat in grows, district and its various units on Saturday passed resolutions that he should accept the offer like his mother and grandmother Indira did in the past. It seemed a trifle contrived and perhaps orchestrated in the face of rising heft in

"People of Amethi are excited and have blessed him (Rahul) with their support. He will win from both the seats and become Prime Minister," it added. The two seats referred to are Amethi and the one from

The support for Rahul to contest from a seat in southern India came from Amethi's NSUI, department, Youth Congress and All India Kisan Morcha units which adopted such resolutions supporting the demand.

All the resolutions have the exactly same wording.

This comes in the wake of top Congress leaders in Kerala, including AICC and of Opposition urging Gandhi to contest from the Wayanad seat in

"Today, we have again put forward our request and I have already spoken to the Wayanad district Congress president, who also evinced huge interest," said Chennithala. The Congress has already nominated Kozhikode district Congress to contest from the Wayanad seat.

The Congress state units in and had also demanded that the contest the elections from the respective states.

Asked about the demands, Congress Surjewala said that will positively consider it.

"We thank them for their effort as also expression of their love and affection and Congress President will positively consider it," Surjewala told reporters.

The Congress under Rahul Gandhi has tried to develop a convention of picking candidates on the basis of recommendations of local party units. This could be employed in the case of the as well.

The Congress earlier this month had announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest from his family

However, Deepak Singh, of the Congress in legislative council, said that Rahul Gandhi should respect the sentiments of the party's unit but he is having family relations with Amethi.

"Rahul ji is a national Every state wants him to contest. He must respect the feelings of party workers in but he is having family relationship with Amethi. won from Amethi and became Amethi is going to repeat this. Rahul Gandhi, an from Amethi, will become Prime Minister," Singh, an MLC from Amethi, tweeted.

Meanwhile, took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying the people of Amethi had rejected him and he was now creating a drama about demands being raised for him to contest from a southern seat.

"Amethi ne bhagaya, jagah-jagah se bulawe ka swang rachaya, kyonki janata ne thukraya. (Amethi forced you to run away, creating drama of demands from different places, because people have rejected you)," Irani tweeted with a hashtag 'Bhag Rahul Bhag'.

She used lines from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's poem to taunt him with the words, "Sinhasan khali karo Rahulji ki janata aati hai (vacate the throne for people, they are coming)" which was also used by Jayaprakash Narayan to attract and encourage lakhs of people at the Ramlila Maidan in during the Emergency.

The BJP has again fielded Irani from Amethi in the upcoming

In the last polls, she challenged Rahul Gandhi in his bastion and was defeated by a margin of over one lakh votes. However, his victory was far less impressive than in most earlier Lok Sabha elections in Amethi.

The Congress party's vote share was reduced to 46 per cent in 2014 as against the earlier figures of 71 per cent and 66 per cent in the 2009 and 2004 elections, respectively. The BJP, whose vote share in Amethi remained in the single digits in 2004, garnered 37 per cent of the votes cast in 2014.

The seat has long been a stronghold of the Congress, which has not been defeated here in three decades -- barring in 1998, when the BJP's defeated of the Congress by a margin of 23,270 votes. Amethi was regained by the Congress in 1999 when was elected from there.

--IANS

bns/am/prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, March 23 2019. 22:10 IST